UNICEF said it will be able to procure and distribute urgently needed polio vaccines, and prevent the further spread of the virus across the Horn of Africa nation and into neighbouring countries with the $1.3 million provided by the Japanese Government.

“Lack of access to routine immunization in Somalia has created the largest known reservoir of unvaccinated children in a single geographic area in the world. The total number of Somali children who had never been vaccinated between 2008 and 2012 was estimated to reach a million,” says Sikander Khan, UNICEF Somalia Representative.

“The poliovirus in such a large reservoir has the potential to result in a catastrophic outbreak, the likes of which are beginning to be seen and as such constitutes an international emergency,” he added in a news release.

In May, a two-year-old girl from the capital, Mogadishu, became the first confirmed case of polio in Somalia in more than six years. The country had been polio-free since March 2007.

As of July, the virus has paralyzed 95 Somali children: 94 confirmed cases in South Central Zone, which includes Mogadishu, and a case in Somaliland. Another nine cases have also been reported in the Dadaab camp in Kenya – the largest refugee complex in the world.

With the help of UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO), Somali communities have launched emergency vaccination campaigns to boost their low polio vaccination coverage. The country currently has the second lowest coverage in the world at 47 per cent, after Equatorial Guinea.

So far, polio vaccines were prepared for six immunization campaigns between May and August, and five rounds have already been carried out. However, vaccines for additional campaigns between September and December have not yet been secured.

More than 2.8 million children under the age of 10 are expected to benefit from Japan’s contribution, which will cover more than 5 million doses of oral polio vaccines for two rounds of immunization activities in the coming months.

UNICEF has been working to support partners and local communities to minimize the scale of this outbreak. However, it warned that frequent movement of people within and between Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia and South Sudan could transport the virus further from Somalia to the entire Horn of Africa.

Before the new outbreak, the worldwide number of polio cases had decreased by more than 99 per cent from 350,000 in 1988 to 223 cases in 2012 with active cases reported in only three endemic countries: Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria.

“The outbreak in Somalia, if not controlled quickly, could jeopardize global efforts to wipe out polio once and for all,” UNICEF warned.

“With large population movements and the breakdown of regular health services in Syria, additional precautions are required to ensure that children are protected against killer diseases like measles no matter where they are,” said Mahendra Sheth, UNICEF Regional Health Advisor. “Immunization is one of the most cost-effective tools we have available.”

In addition to the more than 70,000 people killed since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began in March 2011, more than 1.4 million people have taken refuge in neighbouring countries. Currently, up to 8,000 Syrians are fleeing the country daily, UNICEF said in a news release.

There are also some 4.25 million people displaced within Syria – nearly half of them children. Many live in cramped and unsanitary conditions where disease can easily spread, the agency noted.

According to UNICEF, about 332 cases of measles have been reported since December 2012 in the Domiz refugee camp in Iraq; 300 reported in Lebanon since January; 133 registered cases in Syria; and 5 cases have been identified among Syrian refugees in the densely populated Za’atari refugee camp in Jordan.

There have been some 3,000 to 4,000 reported measles cases in Turkey over the past year, including 300 among Syrian refugees.

In all the countries, UNICEF, working with the Ministries of Health, the World Health Organization (WHO) and other partners, has increased vaccination campaigns to help ensure that all children are protected against disease.

The mass vaccination campaigns coincide with World Immunization Week, which promotes global immunization as one of the most effective tools to keep children safe from deadly disease.

Meanwhile, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) today welcomed a generous contribution of around $43 million from the United Kingdom that will help provide much-needed food assistance to tens of thousands of Syrians both inside and outside their country. The agency will also use the funds to issue food vouchers to thousands of Syrian refugees who are either sheltering in camps in Turkey or as urban refugees in Lebanon.

“Ever since we launched our emergency operation in Syria and the region last year, the UK has been both timely and effective in responding,” said WFP Emergency Coordinator for the Syria crisis Muhannad Hadi.

“The UK has also given us the freedom to maximize our use of resources, according to our assessment of the situation. For example, we provide food vouchers instead of direct food assistance in areas where markets are still functional. This means WFP is supporting both Syrian refugees and host communities, who are suffering increased pressure in these difficult times.”

The UK is also helping WFP scale up its logistics capacity by providing armoured vehicles and personal protective equipment to assist field monitors inside Syria move around in dangerous areas. The agency must raise $19 million each week to provide food assistance to 2.5 million hungry people inside Syria and more than one million refugees in neighbouring countries.

FAO said in a news release that the speed of communication and accuracy of the global positioning system (GPS) function integrated on mobile phones is of great advantage for farmers who are increasingly using this technology.

“FAO and partners are piggy-backing on this enormous uptake of mobile phone technology for uses in reporting animal disease outbreaks, tracking vaccination campaigns and the delivery of veterinary treatments, such as de-worming animals,” said FAO’s Assistant Representative for Programme Implementation in the country, Robert Allport.

Three out of four people have a mobile phone in Kenya and while only a third of Kenyans have access to the Internet, 99 per cent of this comes from mobile phones.

Mr. Allport said the widespread adoption of this technology has revolutionized the livestock sector, as up until five years ago veterinarians had to travel to remote locations to record data and then again to process the paperwork.

“Cellular phones eliminate delays in receiving field data, since all the information is relayed via the mobile network,” Mr. Allport said.

FAO recently partnered with the Royal Veterinary College and Vetaid, local non-governmental organization, to support the testing of EpiCollect, a mobile phone application that helps track animal vaccination and treatment campaigns.

The application would allow users to access and monitor vaccination data in real-time, and could potentially be made available not just to veterinarians but to animal health workers and village elders.

FAO has also developed an information system to display data on disease outbreaks that would allow for an early warning system to isolate infected animals and prevent the death of tens of thousands of livestock. The system, known as EMPRES-i will be tested in Uganda this year.

“The FAO EMPRES-i system is truly a global public good, and our reporting and response times are being constantly improved, now thanks to incredible technology,” said Juan Lubroth, FAO’s Chief Veterinary Officer. “Prevention, preparedness and early response are powerful concepts that when translated into tools can be effectively used against infectious diseases, thereby safeguard people’s livelihoods, fend off hunger and, in some cases, human illness,” he added.

In addition, FAO has partnered with Oxfam and Nokia to monitor water points in pastoralist areas as an early warning indicator for drought in Kenya and Ethiopia, and is assessing how mobile technology can be used to better link livestock producers with markets and livestock traders.

“Traders won’t travel to a remote area to purchase animals unless they have a guarantee that they will be able to buy a minimum number of animals. Otherwise, the expense of making the trip isn’t worthwhile,” Mr. Allport said. “But if sellers at market can relay information to a central point about how many animals they have, where and at what price, then the market functions more efficiently and pricing becomes more transparent. They can also collectively bargain for better prices.”

The immunization campaign, spearheaded by the GAVI Alliance, will cover Benin, Cameroon, Chad, Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal and Sudan.

“Meningitis takes a terrible toll on the people living in vulnerable parts of Africa every year. It is a painful disease which can kill quickly and often leaves victims with disabilities that will blight their lives,” said Seth Berkley, CEO of the GAVI Alliance, the members of which include the UN World Health Organization (WHO), the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the Meningitis Vaccine Project, amongst a range of other bodies.

The seven countries targeted are vulnerable to seasonal severe outbreaks of meningitis with up to 430 million people at risk from the illness, according to a news release issued by the GAVI Alliance.

“Nobody really understands exactly why just in that region. But every five to seven years there would be an epidemic. There would be hundreds of thousands if not millions of cases. And it would completely drive the economies to a halt,” said Dr. Berkley.

The vaccination drive will ensure those at high risk, particularly children and young adults, are vaccinated by the end of December.

The disease can kill the most severely affected patients within 48 hours and causes brain damage, hearing loss or learning difficulties in 20 per cent of sufferers. The most recent major outbreak, in 1996, saw 250,000 people contract meningitis, of which 25,000 died.

For its 2011-2016 programme, the GAVI Alliance plans to support immunisation efforts in all 26 countries in sub-Saharan Africa.

The Geneva-based GAVI Alliance is a public-private partnership aimed at improving health in the world’s poorest countries. Since its establishment in 2000, GAVI has financed the immunization of more than 325 million children and prevented more than five million premature deaths.